Oxlips, Cowslips and Polyanthuses are all beautiful and easily grown. Among other species of Primula which are easily grown and worth growing are P. denticulata, with long stems surmounted by large mauve flower heads, P. d. Cashmeriana, similar to denticulata but with yellow centres to the flowers, P. cortusoides, with beautiful rose-coloured flowers, and the many varieties of the handsome P. japonica, which specially likes moisture and shade.
Given a well-drained, yet not too dry, situation, the various Alpine Auriculas are not difficult to grow, and include varieties with many beautiful colours.
The charming Hepatica Angulosa and H. triloba, in its many kinds, are lovers of shade, leaf-mould, moisture and non-interference. Of the Gentians, the two species best worth cultivating are the little G. verna and the old Gentianella (G. acaulis), both bearing flowers of the purest blue. They are not plants which thrive everywhere, but they like well-drained soil, an open situation, and moisture in summer. The Gentian of Pliny was probably the medicinal G. lutea, which is not very valuable for garden decoration.
Candytuft, Violets, Doronicums, Aubrietia, Alyssum, Adonis vernalis, Double Daisies, Thrifts, Lilies of the Valley, Wallflowers, Dog's-tooth Violets, Asphodels, Trilliums, Dodecathons, Veronica prostrata, Saponaria ocymoides, Lithospermum prostratum and some of the species of Trollius are but a few of the very many beautiful spring flowers which may be grown in the open borders of English gardens.
To give the names of trees, shrubs and climbing plants which flower in spring is unnecessary, for everyone must be well acquainted with the blossoms of Apple, Pear, Plum and Cherry, of Hawthorn, Wistaria, Guelder Rose, Syringa, Lilac and Laburnum. There are, however, a few good shrubs which are not grown nearly as much as they should be. Those who can afford warm and sheltered sites should certainly try to grow the magnificent Magnolias, especially M. conspicua and M. stellata; and everyone may grow Forsythia suspensa, with long sprays of yellow flowers in April and May, Spiræa Thunbergii, the leaves of which turn a crimson in autumn, as also do the leaves of S. prunifolia, which is covered with white double-daisy-like flowers in spring, and Exochorda grandiflora (The Pearl Bush), which likes plenty of sun and hates being cramped or cut.
[THE GARDEN IN JUNE]
The flowering of the Columbine is the beginning of summer. Tulips and Double Narcissi and stray Anemones may still afford bright colour or sweet fragrance, but they do not charm us any longer, for they are of the spring, and the spring is past. What a beautiful old flower it is—"the Columbine commendable," as Skelton called it four hundred years ago! Indeed, all the old garden writers mention it, its vigour and grace having always earned it a secure place in the English garden, where it has been grown for centuries "for the delight both of its form and colours." The Columbines of our ancestors were all varieties of the wild English species (Aquilegia vulgaris), and so vigorous and handsome do some of these plants become under garden cultivation, that it is questionable if any of the newer kinds surpass them in beauty. However, the various species of Aquilegia which have from time to time been added to our garden flora are to be counted with the most valuable of plants, among the best of them being the very curiously coloured red and orange species known as A. Skinneri, the tall golden A. chrysantha, and, perhaps most beautiful of all, the Rocky Mountain Columbine, A. cærulea, with its quaint green "horns of honey."
This is the month when the Pyrethrums and Pæonies, of which such splendid varieties have been raised by Messrs. Kelway and others, are in their glory, as also are the Snapdragons, Bride Gladioli, Pansies, Ranunculuses (of which the old R. asiaticus, though somewhat tender, may be easily grown in rich light soil if planted in February at a depth of two inches and kept well watered during the growing period), Madonna Lilies (which must be planted in good garden soil and left alone), Lilium elegans, and L. longiflorum, with its beautiful varieties (which like well-drained spongy soil containing plenty of leaf-mould).